Portola Redwoods State Park lies on the west side of the Santa Cruz mountains, where the land slopes down towards the Pacific, and the cool sea breezes create the ideal climate for California Redwoods. A creek runs through it; easily fordable in a dry summer, and waist high in a wet winter. I have been fortunate enough to go on many walks along its network of trails, taking a camera with me.
A few weeks ago I went to the San Jose Museum of Art, which is showing an exhibition of Brett Weston’s prints. (It runs until January 2023, and if you are in the area I highly recommend it.) As always, I found that seeing the work of great photographers was equal parts inspiration (“I must go out and make more photographs”) and dejection (“but they will never be this good”).
But we will never improve without practice. And, as Brett’s father, Edward Weston, once observed: “I should be able to look down at my feet and see something to photograph.” So one evening I took my SInar F1 and 3 film-holders loaded with FP4+ down to the local park to see what I could find.
